Unknown: (Ghost Ship splinter) Daav's up early : (c) 2012, Sharon Lee & Steve Miller

"Poor children. But they, at least, seemed to have recovered their good humor with a night's rest. I trust that the same was true for their cousin."

"I'm don't think Pat Rin slept," Shan said. "What Nova said about his office not being half busy was an understatement."

"It would seem that he requires staff."

"Mr. pel'Tolian-- Pat Rin's butler-- came in with us. The last I saw him, he was directing a rather large and decidedly annoyed person to the guest parlor , with assurances that he would be called in his turn, and not one moment sooner."

"Excellent."

"It's a good start," Shan agreed.

They walked on for a few dozen paces in companionable silence, Daav noting a trace of mud in a gully that ran across the road, that might speak of a seasonal stream.

"I regret," Shan said, much more formally than he was wont, "that I missed meeting your daughter, my cousin, during her visit. Will she come to us again soon?"

Daav caught his breath against a twitch of pain, and kept his pace even.

"I believe that she must do so. There is unfinished business between herself and her brother."

There was a small pause.

"Uncle Daav," Shan said carefully, "are you quite well?"

Daav sighed. Shan was a Healer. To lie to a Healer was...difficult. Still, they were bound not to force themselves even upon those they considered to be in need, and they were, after all, merely human. Which meant that they could be distracted.

"I am a trifle tired, child," he said evenly, and turned his head to meet opaque silver eyes. "Our neighbor, the excellent Mr. Shaper, tells me that Boss Sherton undertakes to build a road to the sea. The delm was unsurprised."

"She must have been working on it for years," Shan said, obligingly following him into the new subject. "Considering what she has to work with and how far along it is. I'm going to propose to the delm that we offer to assist her --" He kicked at an embedded boulder, artfully missing-- "since we'll be doing work of our own."

"That would," Daav said, "be neighborly, and a road to the sea must benefit all."

"It may benefit Korval more than most. I've been looking about Surebleak for a place to site yos'Galan's new house."

"Surely there's room at Jelaza Kazone for us all? And no need for a fortress to protect our valley, here. All we need do in order to remain inviolate is to fail to fix the road."

Shan grinned. "As you point out, it's hardly prudent for all of us to travel in the same car."

Daav inclined his head, acknowledging the point. "Yet, in terms of a strike from space, two houses as near as this location and the seacoast --"

"I have my eye on the archipelago that lies east and north of here."

" North ?"

"Yes, it seems lunatic. However, according to Weatherman Brunner, once the mirrors are deployed in orbit, and tuned correctly, we should see some climatic benefit very quickly-- and the situation I have in mind is only a few degrees nearer the pole." He sighed.

"The records of the founding company being what they are-- or, more accurately, what they aren't -- it becomes a challenge to know who, if anyone, may have a prior claim. Also, one would want to take a proper look around, and invite the scouts to do likewise. If they find the situation pleasing, then we might ease the pressure cooking of culture in the capital city."

"Do so many scouts follow the Dragon?" Daav asked, startled.

"Ms. dea'Gauss' database will be definitive, of course. My impression is that there is an...ideological divide between those who consider themselves to be scouts and those who consider themselves Liaden scouts."

"Yes, so Clonak had said. I had not understood the rift was so wide."

"Becoming wider, as I hear it --" Shan raised an arm to point. " That tree will have to come down, if we do nothing else."

"It is rather precarious, isn't it?"

"Speaking of precarious...Uncle Daav, are you well?"

Drat the child; he was as tenacious as his father had been.

He kept his voice cool. "As I had said, I am somewhat tired."

"I imagine that you would be, carrying Aunt Aelli all this while."

He sent a quelling glance into the boy's face.

"Does she weigh so much?"

"Who can tell the weight of a soul?" Shan mused, with the air of quoting something. "I wonder, too-- forgive a nephew his natural concern for a favorite uncle!-- if there might be another burden. One cannot help but see --"

"Can one not?" Daav interrupted, tartly. "I had thought Healers were given training."

"And so we are. However, having observed a certain flavor of melancholy, I can hardly un observe it, now can I?"

"I suppose not." Daav sighed, and turned his face aside, ostensibly scanning the edge of the track for other perilous trees.

Shan walked beside him, his patience almost tangible.

"If you will have it, the burden of my past necessities oppresses me this morning. Doubtless, the mood will pass."

The track curved; broken twigs littered the ground-- a sign, perhaps of the car's recent passing. He looked ahead, where Surebleak's scraggly road, aided by a pair of planks, joined a wide, smooth drive, the sere plants and grudging weeds giving way to a plush blue-green grass. From ahead-- and up-- came a whine, growing steadily louder, and a flash above the tree.

Daav raised his hand to shield his eyes from the sullen sun, discerning the shape of a ship's shuttle.

"There," Shan said cheerfully. "That will be some more of us."

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